You're going to drink. Do it well.

April 27, 2013

Simple enough--10 fine bars in Key West, from high to low. The absence of the Green Parrot merely means it's being featured elsewhere on the Guardian's extensive Key West coverage this week. Pretty pleased to have been able to write up some of my favorite spots. Respect to Nick Doll for the ace photos. J.R.

March 06, 2013

In 2011 we'd served gimlets for guests of the Key West Literary Seminar from my brother Josh and sister-in-law Bonnie's Airstream--the beast was out of commission last year, getting a new engine and various upgrades by mad inventor bro, and this year she was back in full effect. We decided to serve from the Airstream at a party held on the lawn of Harry S. Truman's Little White House. But first she needed to get a good sprucing up. And: we had to come up with some cocktails for the evening.

A huge fan Aperol, I had been struck by an ingenious cocktail of Enzo Lim's that he'd made for me at his bangin' Fhilipino restaurant in the East Village, Maharlika. "The Fort" is a beguiling fusion of Aperola,guava juice, lemon juice and celery bitters. Front-loading a drink with Aperol is a ballsy move and this one really succeeds. When I found myself staring at the 6 bottles of Aperol I'd ordered the morning of the party I decided to attempt to recreate "The Fort" in punch form, following Enzo's proportions. Worked out quite well, particularly for the Aperol lovers in the crowd. In an attempt to retrofit this one to our Graham Greene theme I dubbed the punch "The Power and the Glory" after Greene's novel--the boldness of the drink just seemed right for that title. So, with huge thanks to Enzo:

Sean was mixing up a vodka based punch, silky and smooth and friendly and as usual the hit of the evening. A more herbaceous variation on his "The Third Man" from our opening night party, "The Loud American" employed fresh thyme and lemon balm which I'd picked up (potted) at Key West's amazing nursery, The Marc House.

THE LOUD AMERICAN

22 Lemons

2 Oranges

2 Lbs. sugar

2 bunches fresh thyme

2 bunches fresh lemon balm

Muddle peels of citrus and herbs in sugar and let sit for at least an hour, muddling periodically.

February 04, 2013

For the debut cocktail on offer at the Key West Literary Seminar 2013, we went with no less loaded a Graham Greene project than "The Third Man". The connection to the drink? The citrus, black tea and English gin punch was certainly emminently British which always connects with Greene, but the ostensible hero of the movie is American. And the titular character, Harry Lime, played by Orson Welles in an epic eleventh hour cameo that informs the entire film, also seems to be American, or perhaps simply post-war mid-Atlantic thespian. But the essence of the concoction, sweet, smooth, even beguiling, and irresistebly seductive, matches Harry Lime's troubling charm nicely. Also, we wanted to really go full-on with the Greene connection when we served the punch to guests and authors as they streamed out of the auditorium after the opening night keynote adress. Sometimes a name is about expediency, another aspect that certainly fits the self-serving Lime. Sean Hoard and I and our lovely assistant Lauren served from punchbowls as the crowd streamed past, handing them plastic cups to sip from on their walk to the evening's actual party, several blocks away.

When I enlisted ('conscripted' might be more apt) Sean to work on this endeavor I gave him a long reading list of Greene books as well as the requisite Greene films like The End of the Affair (which he didn't like) and The Third Man (which he dug, of course--it's an inarguably great film). Sean took his research seriously and read several books, and I think The Third Man came at the end of the whole process--an unmitigated treat and a nice cherry on top of the boozy sunday that was this massive project. In the end I think he was more well versed in the Greene ethic and aesthetic than me--he was certainly fresher to the material. And the enthusiasm and focus he brought elevated the entire project in exactly the manner I'd hoped, bringing serious cocktailing technique, a refined palate and unvarnished enthusiasm.

The day of the opening party he spent hours zesting lemons and oranges and muddling with the cane sugar in a 15 liter Cambro, returning over and over to muddle the citrus in the sugar and shake it around, sort of hyper-melding the citrus oils and zest with the sugar and creating the foundation for the oleo saccharum syrup. You could smell the infusion start to take hold as the elements were made to dance with each other repeatedly--an almost alchemical process. With the addition of Irish Breakfast Tea the syrup was complete, and then it as simple as 2 bottles of Beefeater and 1 of Absolut, a neat mediating of the london dry gin citrus & juniper profile with a nice clean vodka to soften it up. Using the same citrus to get 32 oz. of fresh juice was the next move, and after pouring into a punch bowl and garnishing with lemon & orange wheels adding a final touch of fresh ground nutmeg, a la minute, moments before we served the punch. That nutmeg was really the crowning touch, adding a nutty, fatty layer and nose to the potentially-too-sweet concoction. There's a great thing that happens when someone takes their first sip of a drink and their pupils widen a bit and a little color comes to their cheeks--perhaps it the Cocktail Blush Response. We saw it over and over that night, and it's an incredibly gratifying experience all around.

Muddle peels of citrus in sugar and let sit for at least an hour, muddling periodically.

Brew 64 oz black tea (10 tea bags) 4 min.

Pour hot tea over muddled peels, stir until sugar is dissolved.

Juice citrus and add to mixture. If needed add more juice to taste goal should be around 32 oz citrus.

Add 2 bottles of Beefeater gin and 1 bottle of Absolut vodka.

Strain peels, add 3-5 liters of soda water and serve over ice.

Garnish with fresh nutmeg, lemons wheels, and orange wheels.

I think we got everyone in a jolly mood straight off that night, which was of course the whole point.

Photog Michael Blades and KWLS President Lynn Kaufelt hugged it out.

Edmund White and Carol Munder.

The Talented Mr. Hoard at the Oldest House & Garden Museum, in an expansive mood.

Marky P. of Key West Burlesque and Momo, co-designer of the KWLS 2013 set and a noted public artist--check out an incredible collaboration with Eltono in Bacelona here.

From The Third Man, Joseph Cotten as Holly Martins and Trevor Howard as Major Calloway or as Martins refers to him, Callaghan."It's English, not Irish" he retorts, setting him up as a snob and a bad guy, but one of the endlessly facsinating aspects of The Third Man'is how right & wrong seems to continually shift around and how good guys are revealed to be bad guys--and the other way around. A smart essay on Calloway's ulitmate role as moral guidepost in this film that is all about slippery morals by Rob White for BFI here, and Greene's screenplay in full here.

Poppa Bear Rowan, not in any way directly connected to the Seminar other than the fact that two of his sons work for the thing, was at most every party, a high grade party crasher with not moral qualms about it. Also one of our most appreciative customers. J.R.

Event photos by Nick Doll.

Coming next: Airstream Cocktails, The Power and The Glory & The Loud American.

January 15, 2013

I've been doing cocktails for the Key West Literary Seminar for the past couple years and this time around I, in an outrageously audacious move, decided to create a series of cocktails for the event's nightly parties inspired by the works of Graham Greene. Travel writer & essayist Pico Iyer's meditation on his internal relationship with Greene through his work, "The Man Inside My Head", has been an important touchtstone at this year's Seminar, the theme of which is "Writers On Writers". Iyer himself attended and spoke eloquently about the book and Greene.

It had been when I'd found out the Iyer would be attending that the idea first took hold, as I'm a huge Greene fan myself. Knowing this project would be a big undertaking I recruited Sean Hoard of Teardop Lounge in Portland, Oregon to develop Greene-tails with me, and we've been corresponding and tweaking recipes and concepts for months. Hoard joined me here in Key West this week where we've been serving cocktails for the 300 plus authors and serious readers nightly all week.

Greene was a commited drinker, and drinking is a common activity in his books, as is travel, and many are set in exotic locations, so finding national spirits or local culinary cues to look to for inspiration in his work wasn't hard. And some characters suggest drinks quite easily in your imagination. The iconoclastic eccentric grandmother-aged Augusta in "Travels with my Aunt" powers through quite a lot of champagne on trains and at various bars around Europe, so I'd thought of a champagne cocktail with a little punch as an homage to her libertine spirit, something a bit saucy. When I discovered that KWLS Lighting Director Jolly Benson had a calamondin tree in his front yard, and more significatnly that his chef mother Sarah had made an amazing marmalade with it, it all sort of wrote itself from there. The citrus' bitter-but-invigorating rind and pith was definitely saucy, and its brilliant orange actually matches Maggie Smith's flame red hair in George Cukor's film adaptation quite closely. (Smith, below, in a still from the film, looking her actual age for a flashback. Her Aunt Augusta is interesting, but Katherine Hepburn, who was originally slated to do the part and was closer to the character's age, and temperment, may have been a better choice. Still, Smith does look fantastic here.)

I mixed the marmalade with Beefeater 24, selected for its elegant, astringent notes culled from its grapefruit and Chinese green and Japanese Sencha tea botanicals, a little honey syrup (1:1) and lemon, shook it all up vigorously & strained into a flute, topped it with champagne, expressing a lemon twist over the top and discarding. I used about 1 oz of the stock in the early versions at the opening night party, but as the evening went on I thought that more of the gin and citrus stock would make everyone ever merrier and I started pouring around 1.5-1.75 oz. Even later I began scopping a small bit if the marmalade into the flute before building the drink, with the benefits of that flash of orange at the bottom of the transclucent, almost mother of pearl colored finished drink, as well as a little hit of the bite-y marmalade.

AUNT AUGUSTA

STOCK:

1 part Beefeater 24

1/2 part calamondin marmalade

1/2 part lemon juice

1/4 part honey syrup (1:1)

1/8 part Aperol

Combine all elements, stir extremely well. Shake to order and pour into a flute (to taste), top up with sparkling wine. But not before adding a dollop of the calamondin marmalade into the bottom of the flute. Lemon zest and discard.

SARAH BENSON'S CALAMONDIN MARMALADE

Wash, cut in half, seed, and purée In a food processor enough calamondins to measure 2 cups - The skin should be in 1/4 inch pieces1 cup orange juice3 cups sugarIn a stainless steel pan bring the juice and Calomondin purée to a boil. Stir in the sugar. Cook the mixture over a medium-high heat at a steady boil for 15 minutes stirring several times.

Spoon the marmalade into clean jars, let it cool and keep refrigerated.

Fantastic stuff, integral for our Aunt Augusta but also brilliant on some toast.

More cocktails to come this week from me and Mr. Hoard, including The Third Man, The Power & The Glory, The Hotel Continental, The Whisky Priest, The Pennyfeather, The End of the Affair & The Loud American.

August 16, 2012

For our innaugural (I think) Heroic Drinkers I'm electing a friend I made through the Key West Literary Seminar, David Lane, a delighful WASP whose wit verges on acid. Even with all the mania over ice in bars around the world now, I do think David sort of trumps even the biggest ice geeks with this whiskey on the millenia-old-rocks, as he explained in an email:

Was actually in Patagonia not long ago and had 1000 year old glacial ice with Johnny Black rather frequently while cruising through the Darwin Channel. See pic. The ice is filled with little air bubbles, from the compression I assume. You might want to add that ingredient to your collection of exotica & difficult. Or start importing the ice via fed ex as a business. There must be a few investment bankers still in the game.

Not coming to KW for the Seminar in 2013. We'll be busy moving to Vancouver if Romney is elected.

Well done on all counts! And speaking for myself, now that it's Romney and the Ayn Rand lovin' Ryan, I'll be busy moving to Australia if the election goes that way. J.R.

February 26, 2012

The schedule for the final day of the Seminar, including Bloody Mary time. Fun to be on the same line-up as Margaret Atwood, Jonathan Lethem and Billy Collins.

In the midst of the marathon of parties for the this year's KWLS Media Director Arlo Haskell reminded me of a tradition where the Seminar's volunteers all have Bloody Marys on the final afternoon of the session. I had no recollection of this from years prior, and I'm still not convinced it wasn't something he just made and somehow manipulated me into helping out--which I respect, if so. And while you can get a damn fine Bloody Mary at the Green Parrot a block away from the San Carlos Institute where the Seminar is held, Arlo pretty much insisted I take care of this last round of the week. After 3 nights of making cocktails for hundreds of guests I was a bit weary and not very inspired to create something amazing--but I had plenty of fixins, to say the least. With Bloody Marys I'm always taking a cue from Alberta Straub's 4-part video series on how to make her elaborate and delicious version, and while I didn't have time to do all the infusing and witchcraft she busts out I did have a lot of elements that she favors, which I knew would be a good foundation. So I threw a bunch of ingredients into a box, including several bottles of leftover citrus-infused Kettel One, and from the Neurogibson the pickled green onions and the pickling juice. In addition I pulled a big piece of ginger, some sliced and lightly pickled serrano peppers, white pepper, Tabasco, Worcestershire, good horseradish, and an assortment of bitters, both the indespensible Bitter Truth Travelers Set & Brooklyn Hemispherical Sriracha Bitters. Somehow I managed to get all this balanced on a bike and safely delivered to volunteer HQ.

There I did the best you can do when inspiration fails you--delegate. Mike Cook is a writer & bartender who's been on staff at the Seminar a couple times, and when I showed up with my kit I told him, "you're in charge" and left him to his own mixing devices.

A month or so later I entreated Mike to recall the recipe, below are his notes.

Let's see if I can remember what I did for the Bloodies. I startedwith the V8 juice, then added that smashed garlic. Next I added a lotof horseradish. Three or four tablespoons for the pitcher.Worchestershire sauce and hot sauce next. There was something else aswell.... ah yes, white pepper. I put probably a table spoon of thatin. I think that was it.

As various weary volunteers wandered through the room I watched them revive almost instantly upon sipping a Volunteer Marys. I encouraged everyone to play with bitters in theirs--Sriracha sort of writes itself, but the Bitter Truth Celery Bitters really made Jolly Benson's Bloody Mary stand out. You get that tradeamark celery salt vegetal bite without that sodium. With all the ingredients left out folks could tinker and adjust their own according to their inclinations. I think we got everyon back on track for that final afternoon.

The Seminar couldn't exist without a massive volunteer effort, from the folks who work the door adn clean up the auditorium between sessions, to the social networking and blogging team, to the board members who put time in year round. I couldn't have presented as well-coordinated a cocktail front without some indespensible volunteers, myself, so many thanks to Erin Kelly, Aimee McNally, Che Bastien, Richard Congdon, and board member Nancy Klingener whose kitchen was annexed for the duration with my experimentations and preparations, and who chaffeured Team Embury to events and made sure to get us home in one piece. Eventually.

And finally, as we sat in the volunteers' lounge my fatigued eyes drifted across the titles of the books on the wall--and lit upon one called Bloody Mary, which in our collective punch-drunk state we took as some sort of pleasingly ominous sign or affirmation.

January 20, 2012

For a champagne reception on the grounds of the Audubon House in Key West, I recruited my pal Che Bastien (above) to help with bartending duties. I put him in charge of making The City Of Tomorrow, named after a poem of KWLS returning champion, Billy Collins. The man has a voice like a fine scotch followed by a shot of warm honey, and he seems like the scotch type but I happen to know he favors vodka and so I felt correct in dubbing this one in his honor. I'd taken some Kettel One and infused it with lemons and oranges--like seeing a red door and wanting to paint it black, I've rarely met a vodka I didn't want to infuse, at least for cocktailing.

Then I went out and got an assortment of fruit, including the most perfectly ripe pineapples I've ever tasted. My somewhat grandiose vision for the drink and the link to the title was that this future city would embrace all different peoples from all parts of the globe, thus the assortment of fruit, bringing different flavors together from different regions. Perhaps a conceptual stretch, but the resulting fresh fruit cocktail was simply delicious, and simple to make-if a bit sticky. Cutting, muddling and shaking fruit and citrus can be a messy job, and we both were living in a world of stick for a couple hours. Worth it, though.

THE CITY OF TOMORROW

1 1/2 oz citrus infused Kettel One Vodka

1/4 oz lime juice

1/4 oz demarara simple syrup

Fruit. Lots and lots of fruit.

In a mixing glass muddle a small handful of fruit (we used pineapple, raspberries, blackberries, apples, strawberries and honeydew melon, mixing freely, and taking requests). Top with the rest of the ingredients and ice, shake rigorously, pour into a tall rocks glass, mint sprig garnish.

It's really just fruit and good vodka and just a touch of raw sugar to pull it all together. It's a much better version of the sickly sweet spring break girl drinks that cause so many problems. So perhaps in this city of the future we shall drink fresher, and drink better. Jason Rowan

Photo: Michael Blades

Above: The Key West Of Tommorrow, Enjoying Cocktails Today: L-R, Marky Pierson, ringleader of Key West Burlesque Theatre, public artist Momo, who collaborated on the KWLS set, Photographer Nick Doll (who shot the images up top and below), Lighting director and Cicero reader Jolly Benson, Cayman Smith-Martin who designed the set and Shane Benowitz who worked on social media during the Seminar.

January 14, 2012

I've spent the first couple weeks of this year working on cocktails for the many parties of the 30th annual Key West Literary Seminar. Team Embury and I made drinks in honor of several of the attending speakers including Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, China Miéville and William Gibson. The pickled scallions in the above photo were used as an onion sub in the Neurogibson, inspired by both Gibson's book "Neuromancer" and Jonathan DeLeon of Sorella's Flying V, where the idea for this recipe oringinated. We departed quite a bit from his original formulation but the principles remain similar--gin, picked green onions, an herbal liqueur and Sriracha Bitters. Jonathan went lean and mean for his Gibson riff, tapping Death's Door Gin & Cocchi Americano.

Rinse a large chilled glass with the Cocchi Americano. Over ice,combine gin and pickling liquid. Stir well and strain into the chilledglass. Finish with Sriracha bitters, garnish with the pickledscallion, and serve!

Once I had the William Gibson/Gisbon name connection light bulb moment I instantly wanted to start with Jonathan's elegant creation and take it someplace a little more far flung, unexpected and audacious-- hopefully something like Gibson's bold work. Briney, piney Tanqueray, herby, swampy Yellow Chartreuese, a little lime juice, even less simple, the nub of a pickled scallion stalk and a dash of the pickling juice. The heavy ginger in the pickles is a nod to the Asian element in Gibson works and indeed in cyberpunk as a whole--I was thinking of Beat Takeshi in the Gibson film adaptation "Jonny Mnemonic", as well as the strong Chinese and Korean elements in the not-too-distant-future of other KWLS guest Gary Shteyngart's "Super Sad True Love Story."

NEUROGIBSON

1 1/4 oz Tanqueray Gin

1/4 oz Yellow Chartreuse

1/2 oz lime juice

1/4 oz demarara simple syrup

1 bar spoon pickled scallion pickling juice

In a pint glass take 2 leaves of lemon balm (I pulled mine from my host and KWLS Board Member Nancy Klingener's garden, check out her blog here) and lightly tap, adding all elements and topping with plenty of ice, shaking vigorously and strain into a rocks glass ( we used stemless wine glasses), topping with a couple drops of Brooklyn Hemispherical Sriracha Bitters to add a little apocalyptic heat.

The resulting cocktail was pretty damn cool, but not one you'd drink all night unlike many that we made for other parties.These considerably more approachable ecipes to come this week.

January 26, 2011

This one sprang from the fecund mind of Mark Buettler, but I revamped and refined a bit for the purposes of serving 300 at a pop, rather than just one. I made some other aethetic shifts as well. Where Mark added a dash of kosher salt to the top of the drink, I went with Murray River Pink Flake Salt, which brings a certain exotic flavor that's hard to describe--this Australian salt tastes like, well, this salt. I purchased mine at The Filling Station in New York's Chelsea Market, an excellent resource for salts and olive oils. Mark's technique (see his video where he walks you through the process) involves muddling and straining; I opted to get the infusion of avocado and jalapeno going by throwing it all in a big blender and hitting "puree", then straining out the remaining bits of fruit. Very important to remove the seeds and the pith, or white stuff, in the jalapeno, leaving you with only the flavor and the suggestion, the evocation of heat, rather than the fire itself. And where Mark went with Anejo, I opted for the more supple, almost honey-kissed Don Julio Reposado, for a softer, sweeter experience.

AVOCADO JALAPENO MARGARITA

8 Parts avocado & jalapeno infused Don Julio Reposado Tequila

(-) 4 Parts Lime Juice (to taste)

1 1/2 Part Dark Agave Nectar

1 1/2 Part Grand Marnier

Shake, Strain into a double rocks glass add fresh ice

Garnish with a lime wheel dropped into the glass. and Finish with a healthy pinch of Murray River Pink Flake Salt on top.

AVO-JALA TEQUILA The Avo-Jala Tequila is simply avocado & jalapeno infused and strained tequila. Use not-too ripe avocado, taking care to cut out any brown spots, cut up slices. Puree, let sit for a couple hours. For the Seminar I opted for a less spicy approach and removed seeds altogether, and let the peppers macerate for only a short while. To make hotter, leave seeds in and let the potion sit for 12-24 hours before straining.

Team Embury at the Audubon House in Key West. Far right is Patrick Symmes who was recounting his unsusessful attempt to make whiskey. Courage, Symmes! Don't give up! Trial and error is the name of this game.

January 22, 2011

Things have been a little quiet online here at Embury in the past couple weeks, but in the real world we've been busy mixing up cocktails for the many, many parties that occur during the Key West Literary Seminar. The theme this year, "The Hungry Muse: An Exploration of Food in Literature", meant the crowd was extra food savvy, and we took a cue from the kitchen for our cocktails. Kumquats, Meyers, agave & fresh-squeezed citrus dominated our creations . For the sort of crowning--or at least most flashy--moment of our ten-day journey of cocktailing we went to the rosemary section of the garden, pulling together a bristlingly fresh vodka gimlet with rosemary-infused simple syrup, and serving to 300 guests from the inside of at giant 1986 Airstream.

Brother Josh and his wife Bonnie had driven their Airstream down to Key West from Maine and when I saw it for the first time the idea of serving cocktails from it for one of the KWLS events popped into my head, fully formed. Josh and Bonnie were game, and thus we all embarked on a hairbrained scheme that was so crazy it might just--and in fact did-work. Batching massive amounts of a new invention, a Kettel One Rosemary Gimlet was the first step, but prepping the Airstream and scheming on how to best execute this. We decided to pop up outside the San Carlos, the auditorium where the Seminar takes place after Adam Gopnik's Keynote Address, and serve drinks from the trailer's kitchen window to guests as they exited the building. This required a test run prior to the evening's events to see if the 34 foot trailer would even fit in the loading zone outside the building. It did, and quite neatly thanks to Josh's really astonishingly good parallel parking skills. So we proceeded with the plan, crossing our fingers that our permit-free and doubtless quite, quite illegal endeavor would not land us in jail. When we pulled up a time hinged to when we though Gopnik's talk would end, we found half a dozen scooters parked in our spot--not assigning a team to guard it was a mistake. (It was a loading zone and they shouldn't have been there, but still--a glaring oversight in our cocktail heist). But after hauling them out of the way Josh got 'er nestled up against the curb and we set to fixing up 300 gimlets. And we served all of them, and got away without attracting attention from the cops. Somehow.

Moments before the storm. Airstream co-pilot Bonnie with Lauren Kincheloe, and Airstream Gimlets on the ready.

So this was the site awaiting Seminar guests as they exited Gopnik's talk (notes on that here).

AIRSTREAM GIMLET

1 1/2 Part Kettel One Vodka 3/4 Part Lime 3/4 Part Rosemary syrup

Combine ingredients on ice, shake well, pour over fresh ice. Garnish with a sprig of fresh rosemary. If serving in large quantities simply batch all the elements together and shake each drink to order, pouring over fresh ice. And as always with big batches, mix it on the sour side to begin, and gradually bring up the sweet until it's right.

ROSEMARY SYRUP Separate the leaves from the stem of the rosemary. Start a good sugar syrup--equal parts water and sugar--anything from Sugar In The Raw, Turbanado or Demarara works nicely. Heat slowly, adding lots of rosemary and bringing the mixture to a low boil, keeping it there for about five minutes, stopping before the rosemary turns brown. Let the syrup cool in the pot to achieve maximum extraction. Strain before using.

Somehow I scored Lauren Kincheloe as my partner-in-crime (literally). Lauren cut her teeth bartending at Employees Only and helms the bar at Bar Marmont when she's not breaking various laws in the service of gonzo cocktailing. She came up with a couple original cocktails over the course of the events--we'll be running those recipe here this week.

It was a pretty impressive mob scene on the sidewalk for about ten or fifteen minutes. Guerilla cocktailing--wave of the future.

Full recipes from all the parties will be posted here this week. For more on the Seminar itself check out Bone Island Book Blog for some fine crib notes on the panel discussions and readings from the week.. We'll also be featuring the recipe for tapenade crostini (for 300) from Lisa Esposito, who served out of another window of the Airstream.